Stephen King writing crime novel

The author of "Carrie" and other horror classics has a deal with the publisher Hard Case Crime for "Joyland," a whodunit scheduled for June 2013. King was an early advocate for e-books, but in a statement released Wednesday he said he has such fond memories of reading crime stories as a kid that "Joyland" will initially come out just as a paperback. That way fans will have to buy "the actual book."

Hard Case Crime is an imprint of Titan Books and also has released works by Mickey Spillane, Lawrence Block and Pete Hamill. King has written one other book for Hard Case Crime, the novel "The Colorado Kid."